“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:33)
Why another parable about the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus is continuing with his parables regarding the nature of the spiritual realm.Remember, the word "kingdom" is translated from the Greek word βασιλεία (basileia), which means, according to the lexicon, "royal power, kingship, dominion, rule; not to be confused with an actual kingdom but rather the right or authority to rule over a kingdom."
Jesus is not referring to a physical place here. He is referring to a particular consciousness. The consciousness relating to our relationship with the Supreme Being.
So we must ask, why would Jesus continually speak about the kingdom of God with parables? The answer lies in the fact that the subject matter - spiritual consciousness - is not easily understood by the physical mind. The mind maintains a collection of images, sounds, and other sensual information taken from the physical world. The Supreme Being is therefore not able to be perceived by the physical senses.
Therefore it is difficult to understand spiritual consciousness - one's relationship with the Supreme Being - with the physical mind. Using parables allowed Jesus to compare aspects of the spiritual realm with certain parts of the physical world.
What does 'yeast' represent?
Here Jesus compares the spiritual realm to the blending of yeast throughout a dough. Is he saying the spiritual realm is like bread?Certainly not. He is focusing on the action of yeast as it mixes into the dough. Yeast allows the dough to rise and expand in order to make bread. Without the yeast, there could be no bread. The dough would not have any activity - or life - to produce the dough's rise.
The “yeast” is the relationship of love that exists between God and each of His children. This is the essence of the spiritual realm and the driver for the growth of our own spiritual life.
In the spiritual realm - spiritual consciousness - the spirit-person (each of us is a spirit-person) is separate from our temporary physical body. And each spirit-person has a unique loving service relationship with the Supreme Being.
This relationship is reciprocated by the Supreme Being. In the spiritual realm, in other words, there is a reciprocation of love between God and His children.
Jesus is comparing this to the mixing of dough and yeast because this relationship gives rise to pleasing the Supreme Being, which pleases the living being who loves the Supreme Being.
This is an escalating situation because as our love increases, we increasingly please the Supreme Being. Pleasing God, in turn, pleases those who love God, which again pleases God.
In our original position, we were created by God to share this love with Him. This is why we are always chasing the perfect loving relationship here on earth.
In this way, Jesus is suggesting that just a little love for God will spread through the soul as we receive reciprocity from God. This love will then spread through our entire being and activities.
The “yeast” is the relationship of love that exists between God and each of His children. This is the essence of the spiritual realm and the driver for the growth of our own spiritual life.
In the spiritual realm - spiritual consciousness - the spirit-person (each of us is a spirit-person) is separate from our temporary physical body. And each spirit-person has a unique loving service relationship with the Supreme Being.
This relationship is reciprocated by the Supreme Being. In the spiritual realm, in other words, there is a reciprocation of love between God and His children.
Jesus is comparing this to the mixing of dough and yeast because this relationship gives rise to pleasing the Supreme Being, which pleases the living being who loves the Supreme Being.
This is an escalating situation because as our love increases, we increasingly please the Supreme Being. Pleasing God, in turn, pleases those who love God, which again pleases God.
In our original position, we were created by God to share this love with Him. This is why we are always chasing the perfect loving relationship here on earth.
What is the 'dough'?
The "dough" in Jesus' metaphor represents the essence of the soul. When considered from a societal perspective, it represents the culture or society.In this way, Jesus is suggesting that just a little love for God will spread through the soul as we receive reciprocity from God. This love will then spread through our entire being and activities.
This metaphor can also represent all of society as well. When love of God is taught, it begins to spread within that society.
Real love of God requires the freedom not to. The Supreme Being gave each of us the freedom to choose to love Him or not. Those of us who chose not to love Him were sent to the physical world to allow us to exercise our freedom and to learn lessons about love and relationships.
Even in this overtly self-centered physical realm, we can see that love is the still most important aspect of each of our lives. All living beings need love. If we do not exchange a loving relationship with God, we seek our love within the temporary forms of the physical world. We seek loving relationships with our physical families, spouses, friends, social media accounts, fans, or fellow organization members.
All of these efforts are futile, however. We cannot be satisfied with these temporary physical relationships. This is why we keep looking for love outside of the relationships we already have. Even those with large extended families find themselves looking around for that perfect unconditional loving relationship. This is because the unconditional loving relationship we are looking for is our original loving relationship with the Supreme Being.
This loving relationship with God is the yeast of our dough. The yeast is the unconditional love that exists between God and His children. No living being can be happy without this unconditional love from the Supreme Being. Without our personal relationship with God, there is no happiness and no real life: just as there can be no real bread from flour without yeast.
